


A World without Shrimp

by Seaberry Siren (Lettrefeerie)



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Discussing Alternate Universes / Worlds, F/M, SoKai Week, SoKai Week 2020, Sort of a Sillyfic, cooking together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:07:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25148944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lettrefeerie/pseuds/Seaberry%20Siren
Summary: Sora and Kairi speculate what a world without shrimp would be like.
Relationships: Kairi/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 8
Collections: SoKai Week 2020





	A World without Shrimp

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so... I know I said I wouldn't be doing anything for SoKai Week because my life is like a crazy roller coaster. And I wasn't lying. However, inspiration spontanously struck and I managed to finish this piece right on time, so I hope it counts as an entry for the AU Day, even though it's not really an AU... And if not, that's also okay.
> 
> A while ago, I noticed that PhoenixDowner (whose fics are awesome by the way and you should go read them if you don't have already) tends to have shrimp involved whenever people eat something on the Destiny Islands. Her explaination of it got me thinking about that in a way I never had before. And this is pretty much what it resulted in. So... Thank you for inspiring this :)

„Did you ever notice that nearly every time we cook something here on the islands, shrimp is involved in some way?”

Sora shrugged. He had never thought too hard about it. Admittedly, many traditional dishes of the Destiny Islands included them, or some other type of seafood for that matter. As for him… “I like shrimp.”

“No you don’t,” Kairi giggled as she gave him a playful jab into the ribs. “You _love_ shrimp. You love it so much couldn’t live in a world without it!”

“There is a world without shrimp?”

“Well, you tell me,” Kairi responded as she continued to prepare the shrimp for the meal they were currently cooking. Sora was busy cutting a pineapple. “You’ve been to far more worlds than I have after all.”

She had a point, yet Sora really hadn’t thought about something like that before. He hadn’t paid close attention to each world’s ecosystem and inhabitants – he wasn’t a biologist after all. “I don’t know,” he responded truthfully. “But seriously, I can’t imagine living in a world without shrimp. I mean, what would that even look like?”

“Well… I mean… In a world without shrimp, there…” She didn’t know exactly either. It’s hard to think about what would be different when you take something you’ve taken for granted your entire life away. Something that’s just so normal as living in a world where there’s shrimp.

“Maybe in a world without shrimp everyone would get a rash after eating shrimp…”

“But that’s not very logical”, Sora argued. “How can you be allergic to something you haven’t even been exposed to before?”

“Well, I mean, it would also be possible that in a world without shrimp, no one would be allergic, but nobody would know either,” Kairi theorized further. “I mean, since there isn’t any shrimp, people would never have tried it anyways.”

“Would be one food allergy less to deal with nonetheless!” Sora remembered vaguely that some whale species’ diet included shrimp as well. “Maybe the humpback whales’ songs would be different too”, he suggested. “I mean, I don’t know what they sing about, but they have to sing about something. Don’t they eat shrimp as well?”

Kairi chuckled at this. “Maybe they’d sing about disturbing orcas on their hunt instead then. Or maybe they’d just sing about singing.”

“ _We are singing about singing ‘cause we are singing in a world without shrimp so we can’t sing about shrimp and sing about singing instead_ ,” Sora lilted, attempting to make it sound similar to a humpback whale’s sounds, but it only sounded like he was going through puberty. He barely finished before he burst into laughter.

Kairi joined him, even though she had to admit she found the things he could do with his voice quite impressive. “Probably something like that,” she laughed. “Did you know that humpback whales compose new songs each year? They make several attempts at writing the song of the year, until one is finally successful.” Where did she pick that up? Sora was impressed by all the things she knew. Probably much more than he ever would. “Then the humpback whales all around the oceans sing it.”

“Would be kinda cool if humpback whale singing would traverse worlds,” Sora thought out loud. “Especially if there was a world without shrimp! Then they could sing about shrimp, despite not knowing what shrimp is!”

“Ooooh, good point!”, Kairi responded enthusiastically as she set the shrimp aside – she was finished with them and now started peeling a papaya. “If we lived in a world without shrimp and we hadn’t traveled to any other worlds at all, we wouldn’t even know what shrimp is!”

“Which means that their dishes wouldn’t even include shrimp,” Sora concluded. “I mean, they could probably use mussels or fish instead, but…”

“Honestly? I kinda doubt it,” Kairi interjected. “I mean… Say you don’t have access to shrimp. You don’t even know shrimp exists. Would you invent dishes that include shrimp? You probably wouldn’t because you don’t know what shrimp is. So you wouldn’t have to replace it with something else either.”

“Well, as I said, there is other seafood,” Sora pointed out. “But anyways, it would be interesting how being a world without shrimp would affect the cuisine.”

“Maybe people would eat less seafood in general,” Kairi speculated. “I mean, as we already noted, humans aren’t the only living beings that eat shrimp. Who knows? A lot of species might not exist in a world without shrimp.”

“So there would probably be no humpback whales at all?”

“I mean… Maybe they’d find something else to eat”, Kairi responded. “But I guess… Removing an entire group of species from the food chain affects a lot. Although that goes more for if shrimp ceased to exist rather than if they never existed in the first place. Worst case would be that everything in the oceans of a world like that would just die at some point.”

“Well, that’s just depressing,” Sora remarked. “So… Maybe we should just be happy that there are shrimp.” Kairi had started chopping the papaya she had peeled earlier, and he couldn’t help but snitch a piece.

“Hey!”, she protested playfully, as he already put the stolen slice into his mouth, grinning widely. “I still want to eat that, you know?”

“I know”, Sora responded, still grinning. “But hey, look at it that way, I can confirm now that this is… Hey!” Kairi had stolen his entire cutting board with the remaining pieces of pineapple on it, and was now running off with it, apparently nibbling on them already. “Give it back!”

“Come and get it, lazy bum!”

“Oh, I will!”, Sora shot back as he followed her, leaving his knife on the kitchen counter. Kairi was already in the garden. And of course, the remaining pineapple slices were almost gone. Almost. “Could you at least share with me?”

“Hmmm…” She placed her index finger on her chin, mimicking a thinking pose. “Nope.” She put another piece of pineapple into her mouth to emphasize. Alright. He’d just have to catch her then…

Kairi giggled as she tried to run, but Sora was faster than her, so of course she had no chance of getting away. She squealed as Sora wrapped his arms around her from behind – unfortunately, he was a bit too tempestuous, and both of them crashed on the grass, the cutting board flying through the air. The last remaining piece of pineapple landed in Kairi’s hair.

Sora was the first one of them to get up again and rush over to her. “Sheesh, sorry! Are you alright?”, he immediately asked, but didn’t get a response. “Kairi?”, Sora whispered as he plucked the piece of pineapple from her hair. Then, he could hear her shaking voice.

“Oh no, Kairi, I’m so sorry…”

“Why are you apologizing?” She turned on her back, and now Sora could she that she was… “I’m _laughing_ , silly!” He sighed in relief. She wasn’t hurt… “Now, gimme that piece of pineapple!”

Before Sora knew it, he found himself pinned on the ground, as Kairi tried to reach for that last piece of pineapple. He grinned as he held it out of her reach. “Nah. That’s mine!”

“Who said it was yours?”, Kairi retorted, as she attempted to climb over him in order to reach his hand. Bad idea.

Before she knew it, Sora had switched their positions again. Now hovering above her, he gleefully ate the last piece of pineapple. “Guess I win.”

“No!”, Kairi laughed.

What followed was a playful scuffle. Neither of them was exactly keen on letting the other win, but in the end, neither of them really ended up winning at all. Both of them just collapsed on the grass at some point, both of them exhausted from their playful fight. Sora was half using Kairi as a pillow since his head somehow ended up on her stomach.

When both of them had calmed down a little, he suddenly felt a cold hand on the back of his head, not icy cold, but cool enough that it felt like a foreign object. He closed his eyes and let out a content sigh as Kairi started to massage his scalp, and her other hand soon found its way into his hair as well.

“Shouldn’t we keep cooking though?”, he murmured after a while. They probably should, but Sora didn’t really mind staying like that for a while.

“There is still a lot of time before the rice is ready,” Kairi responded. “I think we’ve earned us a break.”

Sora hummed in agreement as he lazily wrapped an arm around her, and breathed in her scent. She smelled like hibiscus blossoms, paopu fruit, like _Kairi_ , and also just a tiny little hint of sea salt. Like home. Sora smiled.

“You know, Kairi, I _could_ live in a world without shrimp.” He pulled her closer. “But I couldn’t live in a universe without you.”

**Author's Note:**

> There is a German idiom that goes “Kalte Hände, warmes Herz” (translating to “Cold hands, warm heart”), which is why Kairi has slightly cold hands at the end of the story.
> 
> Also, the stuff about the humpback whales is actually true. To be a bit more specific, there seems to be a certain group of humpback whales, who compose the songs. There are various failed attempts at landing a hit song each year, until one is successful. Said song then spreads all around the world. Although I doubt that hypothetical alien humpback whales on other planets would sing the same songs.  
> Humpback whales are also known for disrupting orcas and sharks on hunts. There are several reports of divers claiming they were saved from a shark or an orca by humpback whales. Recently, scientists also managed to observe humpback whales disrupting orcas and sharks while hunting smaller whales of different species. They really are a fascinating species!
> 
> Last but not least... Huge shoutout to my beta, theeeveetamer, who isn't even a KH fan, but she proofread this regardless. Thank you, you're absolutely awesome!  
> Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this at least a little :)


End file.
